Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2008, Page 73
adjust to life on the outside. The FBI is watching the group, worried about another Waco. [A
Channel 4 (UK) 12 December 2007 TV program on the group includes interviews with both
leader and followers.]
Men‘s fraternities at many southern Nigerian universities have become violent cult-like
gangs in recent years as the higher education system has stagnated and deteriorated, with
inter-cult violence accounting for some 115 deaths among students and teachers between
1993 and 2003. In the 1980s and 1990s, the country‘s military leadership used the cults
against leftist student unions, and politicians still employ them to intimidate opponents.
Older students and alumni recruit new students to the cults at the beginning of the school
year, and some students join so they can ―harass professors‖ who might fail them, says a
faculty member. Cult membership is also an opening to post-graduate employment in a
country where college graduates find it very difficult to find work.
Bishop Michael Reid, leader of the Peneil Pentecostal Church, in Brentwood, Essex,
England, has moved to his Arizona ministry after confessing to adultery. In 2002, a
Brentwood city councilor called the church a dangerous cult, which resulted in church
members winning damages in a libel suit. Reid, formerly a police officer and insurance
salesman, was made a bishop in 1995 by the International Communion of Charismatic
Churches in Nigeria.
The Texas Supreme Court in June ruled that the First Amendment protected the exorcism
carried out in 1996 by the Pleasant Glade Assembly of God that injured a young woman
in Colleyville. A jury had found the church and its members guilty of abusing and falsely
imprisoning Laura Schubert, and awarded her $300,000 for mental anguish, reduced by an
appeal court to $122,000 for loss of future income. The church claimed that Schubert‘s
problems did not arise from the exorcism but rather from traumatic events she witnessed
while with her missionary parents, in Africa. The appeal court said that upholding the
church‘s First Amendment rights did not preclude it from being held liable for mental
distress triggered by a ―hyper-spiritualistic‖ environment. The Texas Supreme Court, on the
other hand, said that while Schubert‘s secular injury claims might ―theoretically be tried
without mentioning religion, the imposition of tort liability for engaging in religious activity
to which the church members adhere would have an unconstitutional ‗chilling effect‘ by
compelling the church to abandon core principles of its religious beliefs.‖ A dissenting justice
said that a church now would simply have to claim a religious motive to deny a church
member‘s claim against it. ―This sweeping immunity is inconsistent with United States
Supreme Court precedent and extends far beyond the protections our Constitution affords
religious conduct,‖ the justice wrote. ―The First Amendment guards religious liberty it does
not sanction intentional abuse in religion‘s name.‖
Katrina Fairlie, who in 1994 falsely accused her father of sexual abuse at the hands of a
pedophile ring involving him and two local politicians, has received £20,000 from the British
National Health Trust in an out-of-court settlement. Fairlee, who received no apology from
her father, wishes the case had gone to court. Recovered memory therapy has been
discredited by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Dr. Jill Mytton, of London Metropolitan University, reports her research indicates that
former cult members experience fear, guilt, loss, and alienation, among other emotions,
when they leave their cult communities, according to a June article in Inspire magazine
(UK). ―There is very little known about the effects on children who are raised in cults and
choose to leave when an adult,‖ she says. ―By continuing research in this area, we can gain
a better understanding of those who leave religious cults, which will help therapists who
work with them.‖
Officers of the Metropolitan Police in London and West Sussex are handing out Scientology
anti-drug literature and attending community meetings hosted by Scientology to discuss the
adjust to life on the outside. The FBI is watching the group, worried about another Waco. [A
Channel 4 (UK) 12 December 2007 TV program on the group includes interviews with both
leader and followers.]
Men‘s fraternities at many southern Nigerian universities have become violent cult-like
gangs in recent years as the higher education system has stagnated and deteriorated, with
inter-cult violence accounting for some 115 deaths among students and teachers between
1993 and 2003. In the 1980s and 1990s, the country‘s military leadership used the cults
against leftist student unions, and politicians still employ them to intimidate opponents.
Older students and alumni recruit new students to the cults at the beginning of the school
year, and some students join so they can ―harass professors‖ who might fail them, says a
faculty member. Cult membership is also an opening to post-graduate employment in a
country where college graduates find it very difficult to find work.
Bishop Michael Reid, leader of the Peneil Pentecostal Church, in Brentwood, Essex,
England, has moved to his Arizona ministry after confessing to adultery. In 2002, a
Brentwood city councilor called the church a dangerous cult, which resulted in church
members winning damages in a libel suit. Reid, formerly a police officer and insurance
salesman, was made a bishop in 1995 by the International Communion of Charismatic
Churches in Nigeria.
The Texas Supreme Court in June ruled that the First Amendment protected the exorcism
carried out in 1996 by the Pleasant Glade Assembly of God that injured a young woman
in Colleyville. A jury had found the church and its members guilty of abusing and falsely
imprisoning Laura Schubert, and awarded her $300,000 for mental anguish, reduced by an
appeal court to $122,000 for loss of future income. The church claimed that Schubert‘s
problems did not arise from the exorcism but rather from traumatic events she witnessed
while with her missionary parents, in Africa. The appeal court said that upholding the
church‘s First Amendment rights did not preclude it from being held liable for mental
distress triggered by a ―hyper-spiritualistic‖ environment. The Texas Supreme Court, on the
other hand, said that while Schubert‘s secular injury claims might ―theoretically be tried
without mentioning religion, the imposition of tort liability for engaging in religious activity
to which the church members adhere would have an unconstitutional ‗chilling effect‘ by
compelling the church to abandon core principles of its religious beliefs.‖ A dissenting justice
said that a church now would simply have to claim a religious motive to deny a church
member‘s claim against it. ―This sweeping immunity is inconsistent with United States
Supreme Court precedent and extends far beyond the protections our Constitution affords
religious conduct,‖ the justice wrote. ―The First Amendment guards religious liberty it does
not sanction intentional abuse in religion‘s name.‖
Katrina Fairlie, who in 1994 falsely accused her father of sexual abuse at the hands of a
pedophile ring involving him and two local politicians, has received £20,000 from the British
National Health Trust in an out-of-court settlement. Fairlee, who received no apology from
her father, wishes the case had gone to court. Recovered memory therapy has been
discredited by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Dr. Jill Mytton, of London Metropolitan University, reports her research indicates that
former cult members experience fear, guilt, loss, and alienation, among other emotions,
when they leave their cult communities, according to a June article in Inspire magazine
(UK). ―There is very little known about the effects on children who are raised in cults and
choose to leave when an adult,‖ she says. ―By continuing research in this area, we can gain
a better understanding of those who leave religious cults, which will help therapists who
work with them.‖
Officers of the Metropolitan Police in London and West Sussex are handing out Scientology
anti-drug literature and attending community meetings hosted by Scientology to discuss the
